Financing IT as we do with Startups

There’s something smelly about financing IT projects in return for a contracted return on investment. It’s not that there shouldn’t be some expectation about return. There absolutely should. But given the uncertainty and the risk, isn’t financing IT projects more like a funding venture? Isn’t it more about managing risk to achieve reward (the desired outcome or better) rather than managing cost and schedule? If it is, then the question to be asked more often is ‘what types of benefits are we seeing for this round of funding, and does the potential return at this stage warrant additional funding?’ rather than ‘are we on schedule and within budget?’